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50 things you didn’t know about Wayne Gretzky

Canada’s most famous athlete, The Great One, becomes The Grey One today when he turns 50.

Wayne Gretzky poses in his restaurant in Toronto on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010. (Darren Calabrese / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

By Mary OrmsbyFeature Writer

Wed., Jan. 26, 2011

The Great One celebrates a big one Wednesday.

Wayne Gretzky turns 50. The hockey prodigy from Brantford, Ont., that Canadians watched grow up, turn pro at 17, win four Stanley Cups, marry a Hollywood starlet, become a dad then gracefully retire from the game he dominated for two decades is now entrenched in middle age.

Here are 50 things you probably didn't know — or had forgotten — about the country's most famous athlete:

27. Ted Beare, former sports editor of the Brantford Expositor, died earlier this month at 82. He was the first reporter to cover Gretzky in minor hockey and Gretzky never forgot that, always returning the journalist's phone calls, according to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

28. Still can't believe coach Marc Crawford didn't use him in the shootout against the Czech Republic at the Nagano Olympics.

29. As a public speaker, Gretzky's starting price is $50,001, according to PFP Sports and Celebrity Talent Agency website.

30. The Grape One makes wine in Vineland, Ont., at Wayne Gretzky Estates.

31. He pitched for Brantford as a 13-year-old at the 1973 CNE pewee baseball tournament.

33. Brother Brent also played in the NHL — 13 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

34. Gretzky was in one (brief) NHL fight — with Neal Broten.

35. A pair of nines in Texas Hold'em poker is sometimes called a Gretzky.

35. Live from New York: Gretzky hosted SNL in 1989. One of his singing lines: “I slipped the puck across the goal-line, the crowd went crazy and roared. But when my baby kissed me and held me in my arms, I knew that I had finally scored.”

36. Artist Andy Warhol captured Gretzky in a portrait. Warhol made seven original prints and gave one to Gretzky.

37. When he scored 50 goals in 39 games, the 50th was into an empty net on Dec. 30, 1981 — but not on an empty stomach. Teammate Kevin Lowe recalled Gretzky, his roommate, cooked bacon and eggs for them before that game.

38. A 1980s-era Gretzky doll retailed for $15.95.

39. He almost became a Maple Leaf as a free agent, a move rejected by then-chairman Steve Stavro.

40. When Pocklington traded his star player to the Los Angeles Kings in August of 1988, the Soviet news agency TASS reported that Gretzky was moving to another club “in his wife's interests and most Soviet hockey devotees found it quite natural.”

41. Wayne and Janet first met in 1984 when he was a celebrity judge on the TV show Dance Fever. They reconnected in 1987 in L.A. and were married the next year in Edmonton.

42. Eddie Mio, a goaltender he met while playing with Indianapolis, was Gretzky's best man.

43. His hockey idol was Gordie Howe, a.k.a. Mr. Hockey.

44. When Mr. Hockey was 50, he was still playing professionally.

45. Gretzky wanted a No. 9 jersey — like his hero, Howe — when he joined the Soo Greyhounds of the OHL, but a teammate had claimed it. Coach Muzz MacPherson suggested No. 99.

46. Urban legend? A Gretzky is a Tim Horton’s coffee with nine sugars and nine creams.

47. It took Gretzky 14 years to become invested in the Order of Canada because he was always busy with hockey. He received the official honour in 1998.

48. Forbes magazine estimated that between 1990 and 1998 Gretzky earned $93.8 million from hockey and endorsements for companies like McDonald's, the Hudson's Bay Co., Hallmark Cards and Coca-Cola.

49. On his 18th birthday, a massive cake was wheeled to centre ice in Edmonton. A teammate later sat on it in the locker-room, making it inedible

50. 50 years old already? Yeah, we know. Not another one like him in our lifetime.

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